Dune: Prophecy is bringing the franchise to the small screen, and the cast promises that the massive sets maintain the scale and grandeur of Denis Villeneuve’s movies. In an interview with Comicbook.com’s Chris Killian, stars Sarah-Sofie Boussnina, Josh Heuston and Chris Mason explained how the imperial palace helped them get into the headspaces of their characters. For a big budget fantasy setting, they were surprised by how many practical sets they filmed on.
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Boussnina plays Princess Ynez, the heir to House Corrino and the Golden Lion Throne. When asked about the set, she said: “It was so amazing. Like, the throne room… Princess Ynez’s bedroom is bigger than my real-life apartment! It’s huge, and it was just like being there. Everything is practically built, and all the props are usable – you can use everything in the room. For an actor, it’s a dream because you are actually there, you don’t have to pretend.”
Heouston also spoke about the palace and the throne room. He plays Constantine Corrino, the emperor’s illegitimate son grappling with his status. He said: “It’s super immersive, and just the scale of it, I think, helps you drop into this world and realize how big it is. When you fill that throne room up with all the other Great Houses, or for whatever ceremonies going on, you can really feel that energy and it’s kind of all directed towards the throne. And standing up there, you can just feel it, which helps.”
Mason plays Swordmaster Keiran Atreides, who reported that the other sets are just as detailed. he said: “I think for me, it was the spice den for my character – kind of just unbeliebable sci-fi-looking set, but so detailed and so nuanced in its ways. It kind of felt like the place where Kieran relaxes, you know, takes off his sword and lets loose a little bit.”
Dune: Prophecy has a tough job when it comes to sets, props and worldbuilding. It is set about 10,000 years before the events of Dune, but about 10,000 years after the present day, meaning it needs to establish its own distinct culture and worldbuilding while still remaining recognizable to fans. The story takes place shortly after the Butlerian Jihad, when humanity defeated artificial intelligence and regained its independence.
The show is based on a trilogy of prequel novels by Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson called Great Schools of Dune. Those books are about the rise of the Corrino empire and the founding of many of the organizations that define Dune, including the Bene Gesserit sisterhood, the Mentats and the Guild Navigators. However, it looks like it won’t be a very close adaptation – the character Ynez, Constantine and Keiran do not appear in the novels, and their closest analogs are very different even from what we know already.
Dune: Prophecy premieres on Sunday, Nov. 17 on HBO and Max. Both Dune movies are streaming there now as well. The Dune novels are available now in print, digital and audiobook formats.
